No More Wasteful Spending

Today after I picked up my daughter from daycare we went to the grocery store to pick up some buns for supper.  I thought we would spend under $5 and spend $15.  Instead of just the buns we got we got the buns, a roast chicken, some wedges, and chocolate bar (for my daughter). I gave into what my daughter wanted and left very frustrated. I want to keep on my budget but at the end of a long day at the end of a long week it is hard to fight with a five year old over roast chicken (and really I can make at least one other meal out of it too).

We came home and I wanted to teach a lesson about money. I sat my daughter down and asked her where she wanted to go on vacation.  She said Disneyland, Hawaii, Mexico and China (yeah I know, lofty goals).  I told her if she really wanted to go on a vacation we needed to start saving money. I took out all the change out of my wallet and started deducting  money for things like the mortgage, daycare fees, gas, utilities (of course explaining it in small words) and after all necessary expenses there was little left in the pile (kind of like real life).  I asked my daughter how else we could spend money.  Oh course that was not easy to think of things to spend money on. When there was nothing else left I asked how would we pay for a vacation and I could see her wheels starting to turn. She started to think of way we could save money and how we can get more money (apparently grandma and grandpa better learn to say no).

I am glad I had the talk with her and figured out a way to get through to my daughter why wasteful spending is so bad.  Both of us have big goals in life and like most things in life, some come with a price tag. Now that she is on the same page hopefully the situations I was in this evening will not happen as much and when I go to the store I will only spend $5 not triple that amount.